Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari was held in a Tehran jail for 118 days in 2009. His arrest came as he worked for western media outlets, including BBC Panorama. In this analysis, Mr Bahari explains why the regime fears information, the internet and a free press.

Young Iranians speak out for the first time about life in a state where putting up a poster can get you jailed, releasing a rap CD calling for change gets you tortured and being gay is punishable by death. In a country where men and women can still be stoned to death for adultery, reporter Jane Corbin asks how much longer Iran can keep a lid on internal unrest as revolution and regime change sweep across the Middle East.

BBC

Fazia tempo que não olhava para a bandeira que representa a cidade onde nasci. Por isso foi uma "surpresa" ve-la de novo e somente agora perceber o simbolismo grosseiro que existe nela.

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"A bandeira paulistana é branca, traz a Cruz da Ordem de Cristo em vermelho e ostenta o brasão do município no centro. O branco simboliza a paz, a pureza, a temperança, a verdade, a franqueza, a integridade, a amizade e a síntese das raças. O vermelho simboliza a audácia, a coragem, o valor, a galhardia, a generosidade e a honra. A cruz evoca a fundação da cidade. O círculo é o emblema da eternidade afirmando a posição de São Paulo como capital e líder de seu estado. Foi instituída pelo prefeito Jânio Quadros em 6 de março de 1987. Antes dela, a bandeira era toda branca com o brasão da cidade"

A film by Kate Davis, David Heilbroner, Franco Sacchi. 74 minutes. 2009

America's 50-million strong Evangelical community is convinced that the world's future is foretold in Biblical prophecy - from the Rapture to the Battle of Armageddon.

This astonishing documentary explores their world - in their homes, at conferences, and on a wide-ranging tour of Israel.

By interweaving Christian, Zionist, Jewish and critical perspectives along with telling archival materials, the filmmakers probe the politically powerful - and potentially explosive - alliance between Evangelical Christians and Israel...an alliance that may set the stage for what one prominent Evangelical leader calls "World War III."

The documentary is structured around four stages of the apocalypse. 1) Rapture; 2)Tribulation; 3) Armageddon; 4) Millennialism;

Wikipedia  |  IMDb  |  Buy the film at Amazon

A film by Rowan Al-Damen for Al Jazeera. 200 minutes. 2008

A series of four-part documentary produced by the Al-Jazeera Network Information, photographs and documents about the case of Palestine and the history of the catastrophe exposured for the first time.

"The Tragedy did not start in forty-eight, did not end in forty-eight." Series was filmed in six countries, including Palestine (inside and outside the Green Line).

Series history includes a detailed and comprehensive assessment of how a disaster will start the plot threads and then crush the revolution and then the ethnic cleansing of forty-eight and until the end by the Catastrophe continued till today, also contain a number of meetings of the most prominent thinkers and historians, journalists and Arabs, Israelis and foreign specialists on Palestine. 

Al Nakba won the prize for the best long documentary about Palestine in Al Jazeera Fifth International Film Festival (Doha/Qatar) and the audience award in Amal Ninth Euro-Arab Film Festival (Santiago/Spain). It participated in other film festivals in Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Jordan, Egypt and Palestine.

 Buy the film at Aido

A film by Karsten Kjær. 52 minutes. 2007

What do Danish cartoons tell us about contemporary democracy?

A lot it seems. Freedom of expression has always been a core principle of democracy. Imagining one without the other is unthinkable to most people. But what happens when one democratic right infringes on the rights of others? Is democracy itself shaped by religion? Are religions democratic? More importantly, is God democratic?

Bloody Cartoons is a documentary about how and why 12 drawings in a Danish provincial paper could whirl a small country into a confrontation with Muslims all over the world. He asks whether respect for Islam combined with the heated response to the cartoons is now leading us towards self-censorship. How tolerant should we be, he wonders, of the intolerant. And what limits should there be, if any, to freedom of speech in a democracy.

The director films in Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Qatar, France, Turkey and Denmark, talking to some of the people that played key roles during the cartoon crisis.

Wikipedia  |  IMDb  |  Why Democracy?

A film by  Yoav Shamir. 80 minutes. 2003

An ambulance is stopped, and the sick people inside brought out to explain their ailments. A mother is separated from her very young children. Young Palestinians laugh and throw snowballs at Israeli soldiers, who jovially respond in kind. One Israeli soldier harasses a pretty Palestinian girl. Another refers to the Arabs as "animals," and suggests the documentary crew is making a film for the Discovery Channel.

Language barriers constantly interfere with the soldiers' ability to do their jobs. "It's not my decision," is a constant refrain as they turn people away. Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir once served his army reserve duty as a checkpoint guard, which was what inspired him to make this documentary, Checkpoint.

For 80 minutes, Shamir simply shows us videotape of what happens at the various checkpoints that the Israeli government operates, which are in place to regulate the travel of Palestinians, purportedly in an effort to combat terrorism.

The film received five festival awards, including Best Feature Documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Best International Documentary at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and the Golden Gate Award for Documentary Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Wikipedia  |  IMDb  |  Buy the film at Amazon

A film by Ben Anthony. 48 minutes. 2007

Michael Travesser says he's the Messiah and that God has told him the world will end with an apocalyptic event at midnight on 31 October 2007. As leader of a cult in a remote corner of New Mexico called Strong City, this 66-year-old former sailor, previously called Wayne Bent, has spent nearly 20 years preparing his 56 unquestioning and devoted followers for Doomsday.

They say they are all preparing for death, to go to a better place. As the programme delves into the world of Strong City, the program find out whether Michael Travesser is about to lead his cult to suicide.

Will this be another tragedy like Jonestown or Waco? Or is Travesser just a skilful manipulator, who undermines his subjects before convincing them that he is the route to all wisdom? Our world did not come to an end on 31 October 2007 - but did theirs?

 IMDb